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Abernethy Biscuits
Rub one ounce of butter into one pound of the best flour, adding a dessert-spoonful of sugar and half an ounce of caraway seeds. Mix all together with two eggs and a little milk. Roll the batter out, knead it into small round cakes, making holes with a fork to allow the steam to escape, and bake in a moderate oven. Time to bake, fifteen minutes. Probable cost, 6d. Sufficient for eight biscuits.
ACID ICE FOR PUDDINGS, TARTS, &c.
Strain the juice of a large lemon, add to it three ounces of sifted sugar, and the whites of four eggs beaten to a firm froth. Pile this over the pudding after it is cooked, and return it to the oven for a few minutes to stiffen. Time to bake, ten minutes. Probable cost, 6d. Sufficient for a pudding for four or five persons.
Two entries run together here: a hard caraway biscuit and a lemon meringue topping. Both are workable, but the Abernethy dough is far leaner than a modern cook expects.
- Moderate ovenRead this as 350F (175C). Fifteen minutes will set and lightly colour biscuits rolled about 1/4 inch thick; thinner and crisper wants closer to 375F and the same time, watched.
- One pound of flourAbout 3 1/2 cups by modern measure. "The best flour" means plain white flour, not self-raising — there is no leavening in this recipe at all, and none is wanted.
- One ounce of butter is not a typoThat is 2 tablespoons to a pound of flour, which is what makes an Abernethy a dry, snapping biscuit rather than a shortbread. Resist the urge to add more; the eggs and milk carry the dough.
- "Roll the batter out"It is a stiff dough, not a batter. Bring it together with two eggs and only as much milk as it takes to make it cohere — a few tablespoons — then knead briefly and roll.
- Docking, not decorationThe fork holes keep the biscuits flat. Without them steam lifts the centres and they bake unevenly, so prick right through to the sheet.
- YieldEight biscuits from a pound of flour gives very large rounds, roughly 4 inches across and 2 1/2 oz each. Divided into 20 smaller biscuits they bake in about 12 minutes.
- CarawayHalf an ounce is close to 2 tablespoons of seed, an assertive amount by current taste. Halve it if caraway is unfamiliar to the table.
- The acid iceThree ounces of sugar to four whites is a soft meringue by modern ratios, so it will be loose and will weep if it stands. Pile it on while the pudding is still hot and get it straight back into the oven so the underside sets against the filling.
- Ten minutes to stiffenThe recipe names no oven heat for this, only "return it to the oven". In a moderate oven the ten minutes will firm and faintly colour the surface. If you want a browned peak rather than a pale one, a hotter oven for 5 to 6 minutes does it, but watch the tips.
The biscuit is traditionally named for John Abernethy, the London surgeon of St Bartholomew's Hospital, and is generally said to have been made to his prescription as a plain digestive biscuit for patients — a claim repeated in Victorian cookery books rather than documented at the time. Whatever its origin, the recipe belongs to a large family of nineteenth-century "hard" biscuits: very little fat, no leavening, kept dry in a tin and expected to last, in contrast to the rich sweet biscuits that came in later with cheap sugar and chemical raising agents. Caraway is often said to have been a common flavouring for such plain baking in Britain well into the century. Cassell's also gives costings — sixpence for either recipe.